Karl Hatfield wins the Narrabri Golf Club’s 2024 shootout final

Karl Hatfield is Narrabri Golf Club’s 2024 shootout champion after he outlasted 17 other golfers during the final of the annual competition on a cold winter’s day on Sunday.

The shootout was introduced back in 2022 and was quite popular among the golfing community, and it has maintained its place on Narrabri Golf Club’s calendar since.

It was again a huge success in 2024, with a total of 86 players taking part in the eight qualifying rounds.

Several players tried their luck by playing in multiple qualifying rounds in an attempt to better their top score, with a total of 207 games being played by the 86 players across those eight rounds. The cut-off for this year’s final was 37 stableford points and there were 19 players named to contest Sunday’s event.

With some qualifiers and reserves being unavailable on day, there were 18 golfers who lined up to play. They included Hatfield, Scott Lamb, Luke McDermott, David McInnes, Zoe Tomlinson, Blake Brown, Tony Nott, Graham Thomas, Kane Voysey, Kurtis Ryan, Lucas Hatton, Wayne Saunders, Ingrid Moulds, Jye Manton, Ben Finnigan, Tom Holland, Glenn Stanford and Brock Smith.

The highly-anticipated event is run and organised by the Narrabri Golfie Pro Shop’s Graeme Trew and Nicole Cooper, with the assistance of Peter Ward. Trew told The Courier that Sunday’s final was once again an enjoyable one and that he received positive feedback from the golfers.

“It was a great day. I thought it went well,” Trew said.

“We had 18 of the 19 players. We do struggle to get the final numbers in with people’s other commitments. We had some people away and some people were too hungover. We had our reserves and some late ring-ins, so we managed to get a good field of 18.

“The golfers do love it. Every time we put one on, they can’t thank us enough.

“I always hope to get through in five-and-a-half hours, and this year we were a bit short of that, we were five hours and 20 minutes. The first nine took about three-and-a-half hours and the second half took just under two.”

All 18 players teed off on the first hole just after 9am, and once again, it was quite a spectacle as players, officials and spectators made their way up the first fairway.

Brown, Thomas and Smith shared the lowest score on the first hole and so the first chip-off of the day was held, with both Thomas and Smith progressing and Brown eliminated.

The remaining 17 players then teed off on the second hole, and Lamb had the lowest score and dropped out of contention. The third hole went to a chip-off, again between three players, and it was McInnes and Ryan who survived as they eliminated Holland.

The remaining 15 players teed off on the fourth hole and again there was a three-player chip-off. Ryan was in there again and he again survived, as did Finnigan, and it was Smith who was eliminated.

McDermott then had the lowest points on the fifth hole and dropped out of the final, and Stanford followed on the sixth.

Stanford’s departure saw 12 players line up on the seventh hole, during which there was a two-player chip-off as Thomas and Saunders had the equal lowest points. This time it was Thomas who was eliminated from the final.

Tomlinson was next to drop out on the eighth and then Nott departed on the ninth as nine players were left standing going into the back nine of the final.

Saunders had the lowest point score on the 10th hole and was eliminated, and then Finnigan followed as he had the lowest score on the 11th.

McInnes, Voysey and Ryan were all making their shootout final debuts on Sunday and they did superbly to go all the way through to the final seven, but they were eliminated on the 12th, 13th and 14th holes, respectively

The remaining four players included fellow debutants Hatfield and Hatton, as well as Manton and Moulds, who were both playing in the final for a second time.

Hatton started the day on fire with birdies on three of the first four holes, and he claimed fourth place after he was eliminated on the 15th.

Hatfield was successful on the 16th and he watched on as Manton and Moulds tied and played a chip-off. Manton won that and Moulds was forced to settle for third, but it was a brilliant achievement after she was knocked out on just the second hole during her debut in 2023.

And then there were two, Hatfield and Manton, who are good mates and often play their golf together. It was only a day earlier that they lined up alongside one another in a matchplay victory. Manton had a one-shot advantage on his now opponent on the final hole, but he had a horror start as he struck two different trees with his first two shots. He was unable to recover and he putted in for seven, while Hatfield putted in a six-footer for five to be crowned the shootout champion for 2024.

Hatfield’s victory was all the more impressive as he plays off scratch and the shootout is a handicap event. It also saw him add to his growing trophy cabinet after he claimed back-to-back Narrabri Open victories last year and this year.

The shootout final is set to return in 2025 for a fourth edition with a few planned rule changes, one of which will require golfers to play at least three qualifying rounds to be eligible to play in the final.